Top 5 Twitter Clients For Android

With the growing popularity of the Android OS for smartphones, it has become a contender for the likes of Apple’s iPhone. With the rise of Android came the facet it revolves around; Open Source. Besides it revolving around being open sourced it also has deep roots with social media. There has been an outbreak of different Twitter applications for the Android devices, each with their ups and downs suited for different types of users ranging from the socialite to the power users of twitter. These are the top 5 Twitter clients for Android (A phone running Android 2.1 OS – Éclair – will be used but most of these will be compatible with 1.5 & 1.6 OS and will be stated if they are not available to all OS versions) :

This is the official application for accessing Twitter from your Android mobile device. Developed by Twitter themselves, it is the most comprehensive application on the market considering it was developed by the creators of Twitter. This has everything the average socialite would ever need as well as having the features Power Users will crave. Here are some of the pros and cons:

Pros:

Interface:

The interface of Twitter for Android is very crisp and concise for you to navigate to what they want quickly and efficiently. When first starting the app, you are presented with options of what they would like to do such as view tweets, lists, mentions, retweets, direct messages and view profile. It seems that the developers of Twitter for Android have taken a page out of Google’s handbook because load times are blazingly fast. The toolbar at the top of the application contains the ability to post updates to your page and to find certain tweets or people based on keyword and/or location. As well, the location map marker in the corner which will allow finding tweets closest to your location. It is also good to note that the Twitter logo at the top left of any screen will direct you back to the main menu.

Speed:

The loading times, as mentioned above, are quite fast. This is excellent for the user on the go who doesn’t want to wait around for the whole application to load before submitting a tweet. This may decrease on users with less RAM but not by much.

Trending Topics:

When navigating to twitters site a lot of trending topics appear. Bringing this feature to the mobile community and making it look good requires some finesse. Twitter for Android has been able to do this quite skilfully, having that little blue bird at the bottom of the main menu tweeting three changing trending topics around itself. This is quite innovative in itself because as of right now the UI for Android apps has been quite lacking but this goes to show that if you really dig into Android you can receive the same quality UI as an iPhone has in terms of apps.

Cons:

Availability:

Twitter for Android is only available for users with the 2.1 OS (Éclair) which will unfortunately leave out the fragmented versions of Cupcake (v1.5 OS) & Donut (v1.6 OS). This will be quite disappointing for most users out there since those versions lead in numbers (until updates are released).

This is the next best thing if users out there aren’t interested in an official application for Twitter. Hootsuite enables users to manage multiple Twitter accounts, as well as being a dashboard for many social media outlets. It contains the usual suspects; Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare but also allows room for lesser used networks or hubs such as Ping.fm and WordPress (just added). Since being designed for the Android, HootSuite has trimmed down the interface and as of right now the user is able to only post tweets. This client is available to all versions of Android including the latest FroYo build. You should also note that the free version does not include stats and is limited to 3 accounts. Here is a look at the good and bad:

Pros:

Scheduling:

The ability to post tweets at certain points throughout the day without having to login to Twitter every time to do so is very desirable. If the user knows what they will be doing at a certain point throughout the day then scheduling updates for those times is a great way to not deter them from what they are doing. All that needs to be done is tap the top right button and click on the calendar button to schedule a date and time.

Statistics Tracking:

The greatest thing about HootSuite is the statistics tracking that is tightly integrated with the client. When on the main page, press the menu button and click on Stats to see the number of clicks per tweet you have made (accounting for the fact that you put a link in your post) as well as the rating of the tweet you made based on the number of clicks it has received. This is very useful information to monitor how many clicks you get per post and what keywords were used to get that many clicks a post.

Cons:

Very Chatty:

This particular client, when it loads, will load all of your accounts and lists and try and update them all at once. This can make for a very slow beginning to your tweets throughout the day. As well to note, if you have a task manager, it would be best to avoid ending HootSuite completely to avoid the clunky start-up it every time you press the icon. The best way to do it is use Androids multitasking capabilities to start the app then go do something else on the phone while it loads.

With Twidroyd being claimed as the “industries standard twitter client”, this app has a lot to live up to. With such high hopes comes a high feature base including but not limited to, the ability to add plugins, edit lists, native bit.ly support and tweet outbox incase you are disconnected from your network. These features will only be available on the paid version but the price would be well worth it just for the ability to use plugins. This client looks like it has a lot to offer so let’s take a look at the good and bad.

Pros:

Layout:

Twidroyd has a simplistic interface and an easy learning curve. Buttons are easily identifiable and don’t leave you wondering where the hell you’re going. This is the type of an app that a power user and just your average socialite would use. Easily adaptable to any user is its strongest suite, if a casual user doesn’t want all the extras they don’t have to use them but they are there for the power user if they so require.

Plugins:

Want to extend your twitter client to be able to view your position on a map or maybe one to read out you notifications to you? Well Twidroyd has you covered! This is an amazing feature to have because it leaves the platform open for innovation, which if I remember correctly, is Google’s concept of Android.

Cons:

Free Features:

This is an amazing product by any measure of stick you test it on but the free features are lacking. Bit.ly support would be great because it allows you to track click stats on your posts but sadly if you go free it will not be available. Maybe in future versions when they add more features they might add a few to the free version to say they were thinking of you!

Seesmic has focused its efforts on a whole suite of tools that can pull information from many social networking sites and present it to you in an easy to read format. This has been brought to the Android OS in a more minimalistic yet crisp interface. Unlike the iPhone version, the client for Android can only add Twitter usernames and note Facebook profiles and the like. Everything is presented in a straightforward manner at the top of your screen, with the ability to switch from your timeline, replies, messages, and your profile. If the red bar at the top of the page is pressed and you are anywhere on the page but the top, the screen will move to the starting position.

Pros:

Functionality:

When in Seesmic, the ability to make a new post is as easy as pressing the menu button. When composing a tweet the availability attach a picture or video and upload it to tweetphoto.com – a real-time media sharing website – is as simple as taking a picture, the rest is done for you. Attaching your location becomes as easy as pressing the location icon and picking between attaching your location, attaching location map link, or location address. Last but no least is the automatic URL shortener which comes in handy for doing multiple links for one tweet (spam anyone?). The ability to do all this from the composition screen is an awesome feature and clients are quick to adopt it but Seesmic was amongst the first to venture and do it.

Cons:

Plugin Support:

With clients starting to use plugins for their products, this client is lacking. This is also an opportunity for Seesmic to look at what clients like Twidroyd are doing and build and improve an what they like and innovate new ways of using plugins. Who knows, maybe we will finally be able to see Foursquare, TripIt, Glympse, Waze, Tungle.me, and Yelp integrate as proposed by [Robert Scoble] in his post Location 2012: Death Of Information Silos [TechCrunch].

Not to be fooled by its French name, this is among the top Twitter clients today. Designed by LevelUp Studio’s it boasts a clean beautiful interface that could rival the iPhones classic user interface (UI). This app does come with a free and paid version so it’s key to note what you would like from this client. The paid version will unlock multiple accounts, 3 widgets for home screen, URL shortening, customization, and viewing webpages and multimedia within the program.

Pros:

User Interface:

Probably the best interface we have seen for Android to date. The sheer simplicity and style draws memories of iPhone’s UI. If you are a fan of the iPhone’s interface then this is the client for you. Everything is laid out at the bottom of the screen and speed depends on how many accounts you have.

Ingenuity:

When clicking on a tweet, the page is expanded and you are given the option to choose a number of options which include reply, links, retweet, message and more. This is a feature definitely worth mentioning because it does not take you away from the tweets at hand and still allows you do what you wish with that tweet unlike other clients who have you view the tweet separate before performing an action.

Cons:

Free Widgets:

The lack of free widgets available to free users is disappointing and should at least include one to satisfy the user who doesn’t want to spend €1.99 on a twitter application.

Verdict:

Twitter is becoming an integral part of people’s social networking portfolio and as such, should have some free (hopefully), premium Android clients. Android supports widgets, most apps give you widgets to simplify the way you access information and take it in and some of these clients have that ability already, so will integrate it later (here is to hoping!). These clients incorporate the average socialite to the power users of twitter and as such they have gained recognition by many. Many will note that some clients only had one or two pros and cons and that is because most features are generic in any client for twitter, these focus on what makes them stand apart. These five described here aren’t the only good ones and more are sure to follow but these are the crème of the crop for now.

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64 thoughts on “Top 5 Twitter Clients For Android”

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What the hell has happened to this site. Are you serious? Are you becoming a software mod site like lifehacker is known for? How about hacking Android on an HTC, now thats cool. Not: “here’s 5 twitter apps because I know you all use twitter”

Twitter is so lame. Who wants to know what I’m doing all the time? Mr. Social Engineer, would you like to know where I’m getting my haircut today? How about the names of my two kids and where they go to high school? Maybe you want to know that I’m going for a run in the park at 8 P.M. and if you want to rape me, that’s your chance.

I have to say that your article is well written, well researched and very much appreciated. It would appear that you have done your research and have taken the time needed to present a great article.

I’m going to throw my .02c in for Seesmic, as it’s the client I’ve been using ever since I got my Android phone and it has provided me with great service in managing the two twitter accounts that I have.

This is proper blog journalism and it should be how the other software articles for HackADay are written.

Well Written I agree! and to the people who wanna complain… there is always someone I swear.. It say in the title what its about. If its such a waste of your time why are you commenting? extra writers = more posts, not same ammount of posts over different stuff. Chubidaba said it best, stfu&gtfo.

@Firestorm_v1 – Thank you for the awesome feedback and I too have used Seesmic for sometime and it has never let me down. If you haven’t tried Touiteur yet I would highly recommend sampling it as just last week I got into it and I am still discovering new features to make my life easier… don’t know if I could give up on HootSuite or Seesmic though

I travel a lot, and between Twitter and TwitPic I can relay where I currently am to family and friends, along with posting geo-tagged photos of interesting places, all from a single app on my work Blackberry. Some people actually do lead interesting lives…

With walt, and with what Sprite_tm said earlier.
The article itself is very well written, but be that as it may, this is not what I expect from a site like Hack-a-day. If I want stuff like this, there is a ton of other sites that can facilitate my every need and, with all due respect to Greg, better..

Twitter is for retards who want to attention whore themselves to the rest of the world, and Arduino users who don’t know how to post anything to the internet from micro projects without a simple pre-written interface.

Posting a list of your favorite clients pretty much proves you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. Stop encouraging the public to waste even more time on social drains like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and anything else that is a huge LOOK-AT-ME popularity contest and provides nothing of value.

@M4CGYV3R
who let you live? … twitter is used by millions and finding the right twitter client is not as easy as you think
i dont use facebook you dont hear me flip out every time i see a facebook post do you?

@Laminar
twitter account name? I want to see these interesting things you do. Plus, maybe a little friendly stalking. Fuck it, if you’re going to post pics with geo info, I might as well break out the ICBM’s. If you’re going to tell me where you are I’m going to find you.
Just saying, if you use twitter and you ever piss off an Anon, you pretty much just owned yourself.

The problem with s=hacks is that it’s not a hack a day–it’s 10/month over the last two months. But I suppose that’s more negative thinking. I certainly do appreciate the ‘few hacks with fun facts’ aspect!

However, liking previous changes in no way obligates me to like present or future changes; it is a logical fallacy to assert otherwise.

This was useful to me because most of hacking forums (xda) I follow have Twitter feeds pushing out the latest ROMs and progress on my faverite devices and I was just looking for a twitter client to follow them. Its not for telling what you had for breakfast. Twitter is commonly used by hacking communities to push news out instantly without having to go to an actual forum where the news could get lost.

If HAD was hurting for content (and it is) I MUCH preferred the component and tool reviews and would have liked to see more of those. HAD as a blog aggregates and reacts to others projects, producing very little content of it’s own and apparently none of the writers feel confident enough to do/submit their own hacks.

You have a sidebar taken up a good amount of screen real-estate dedicated to How-tos, “tool” reviews ( only TEN since 2005, including this twitter one and the look at the Xbox360) and part guides. That’s (mostly) appropriate content. Why are you reviewing smartphone applications? You even went from over-advertising the Bus Pirate, to never mentioning it again. Moderation in all things, people. The BP has had loads of software updates recently, and you’ve not even mentioned the major releases. Get your act together, decide what this blog is for.

Lulz, Good luck! I’m behind 7 proxies.
But seriously, It’s not like you can’t, I don’t know, release your IP and renew it (After all, it’s impossible!). These are things you learn when you’re not using lame tools like Twitter.

Again to all of the many who have conflicting opinions in regards to this post.
HackaDay is brilliant for the many who read it, with many catagories [android :)]. But we all have to remember that there aren’t always enough “hacks” to go around every day. I find that it’s great when a new post is added, and even if i don’t care much for it, its a good read. But the odd ‘off topic’ is nice, and I don’t use twitter, but many do for projects and the like, so its nice for a change. It may also dredge up some more interesting Android posts…

people dont waits your time by complaing, just give up on this site and enjoy watching it burning and crashing, it obvious that articles chosen with popular sheep topics so HaD show up more in Google.
All done in name of greed and yours opinions are useless. So if you want to do something about lets start new site without owner so it wont have a same faith

@Anon
There are proxy laws set in place with proxy IDs that can be blocked in most countries and you can be kicked form your proxy and depending on the crime being committed you can be arrested.
Proxies are built for private web browsing within the law, not for a free get out of jail free pass for internet crimes.

Please, feel free to continue using Twitter to announce your excitement that little Jimmy in the row behind you gave you a funny look, or to post all about (in 140 characters or less) that interesting looking cloud you saw during recess, all from your daddy’s shiny plastic Mac or your overpriced iPeen.

I will continue to work in the real world, using a real computer, where if I want to contact someone on my(free Moto Droid) phone I’ll call them or text directly (which happens to be less work) instead of announcing a text message to the whole world like the immature attention whore you clearly strive to be.

For the record, if you have trouble picking a Twitter client you are too stupid to be using a computer in the first place. It needs a text box and a post button, with some minimal preferences to log you in. Anything else is froofy shit to make you go “Ooh, shiny!” and forget that the whole point of this software is to WASTE TIME.

Also, all of my comments are rascally-motivated. I’m a rascally sorta guy.

@M4CGYV3R I’m an anti-Twitter guy and I generally feel the same way you do, but you’re honestly going about this all wrong. I like to challenge people to think about why they use Twitter and how important it really is, not shove some self-important rant down their throats about how uninteresting their lives are. You seriously need to calm down, it’s just a freaking post on the internet.

The point is people shouldn’t have to “shift threw some posts” We come here for hacks. I don’t expect to see software reviews here any more than I expect to see adverts for bowling balls or cooking recipes.

This is really not the best place to post this though… You really should dedicate an entire post to this though and not just a random comment on a random post. I think people are mostly pissed off because hackaday has not re-written its mission statement to fit the new directives. Maybe create a post and/or permanent page explaining the changes.

@Newbs questioning my proxy knowledge
Wow, clearly your first day on the net.
“7 proxies” is a meme. Try google maybe…
A simple renewal of the IP solves all problems.

@Jason:
That’s cool and all, but a feed just isn’t the same. If I wanted information on Twitter clients, I would check somewhere else more oriented to social media. If I want to see a collection of amazing, original hacks I come to HaD. Get back to your roots! This article is not HaD.

@Jason: I think that expanding the content that HaD covers is generally a good idea, as long as you keep posting the same (or more!) hacks that your long-term audience has come to expect from this site, which has in the past catered to a niche audience.

Even if they re-post their direction we still don’t want to see this. I swear I’ll leave for hackedgadgets, start posting and alerting hackedgadgets of all the new hacks before HaD. Maybe we should just have a community wide move to HG.